This story about the Ohlone College Engineering Program was first broadcast during the Ohlone Tri-City News program on May 17, 2023.

Murtaza Naqvi, Reporter

Script

Murtaza Naqvi, Ohlone Tri-City News: The Engineering Department of Ohlone College provides resources and different benefits to students in order for them to succeed within their individual career paths.
Rose-Margaret Itua, Engineering Professor: Students there take the engineering classes here at Ohlone, will be exposed to current technologies in industry. We have really great faculty teaching our classes, faculty that care, and also students exposed to field trips and internship opportunities. But really at Ohlone Engineering, we focus on hands on transferable skills so that our students are competitive in today’s job market.
Reza Barghi, Engineering Professor: We have a lot of students who do various projects. One specific is our Engineering 101 course. When students take the class, there is a lab three that is… the classes taught by Professor Rose-Margaret, and she has this lab called Lab three, where the students design their own project and they can use all the equipment that we have in the lab to manufacture and create their prototype.
Murtaza Naqvi, Ohlone Tri-City News: Students within the engineering department express their own personal learning experiences and benefits they have gained through participating in engineering courses.
Sandra Than, Engineering Student: I think that the engineering department… Well, it’s obviously the department I’ve been around the most, so I might be biased in saying that. I think it’s pretty exciting, pretty friendly. You see a lot of different people that know a lot of different things, and you learn a lot from just talking to the peers and everyone is really friendly.
Edward, Engineering Student: Honestly, learning like all the new programs that engineering’s are using now, like MATLAB, AutoCAD and like multi-SIM is just like really interesting on how to like design new stuff and.
Jose Navarro, Engineering Student: Then through meeting people like, you know, professors Tuem. I just came out of her classroom right now and then meeting people like Reza. He’s in charge of taking care of all the engineering departments. I was able to see kind of what electrical engineering was about, and that is something that really attracted me.
Reza Barghi, Engineering Professor: We have… we can literally make almost anything in this lab. We have, again, we have some more equipment to come in. We have robots, the authentic arms and assembly lines. I would like more people to come into a lab, have an idea what to do. Just the other day, for example, we had a student who needs to add new pickups on their guitar. We took it apart, put in the new pickups, show them how to read an electrical diagram. I learned a little bit myself because you know where I release in certain hobby fields such as like guitar and stuff. They don’t really follow legit diagrams. They have different names for certain things and hook ups. And, you know, it was interesting to read what the… what that side of the at least the electrical field is, even though it’s not really electrical, you know…
Murtaza Naqvi, Ohlone Tri-City News: The utilities and workspace provided by the engineering department staff allow students to work on hands on labs, giving them more potential to learn. For example, students here were assigned a challenge to build a car in a specific amount of time, which allowed them to gain extra credit if they came in first. Additionally, after completing this in class assignment, they were allowed to go outside and race to see which car performed the best. Professor Rose Margaret ensures that students will be able to succeed within Ohlone College’s engineering program.
Professor Rose-Margaret Itua: I want the students to know that they can do anything that they set their mind to do, they can become engineers. I know that often times the students are told sometimes that engineering is difficult. Well, I’m here to say it just takes commitment and they can become great, amazing engineers. They should come with a mindset that they can do anything they set their mind to do, to learn, to create and to innovate and be ready to become the best… one of the best engineers in the country. And the Silicon Valley.
Murtaza Naqvi, Ohlone Tri-City News: If you have any extra questions regarding the engineering department held at Ohlone College, please visit Ohlone.edu/engineering.

This story about the Niles Film Museum was first broadcast during the Ohlone Tri-City News program on May 17, 2023.

Murtaza Naqvi, Reporter
Nicolas Bihler, Photographer

Script

Murtaza Naqvi, Ohlone Tri-City News: The Niles Essanay Silent Film museum is located in what is now the historic district of Niles in the city of Fremont. People from the film industry, from all parts of the world visit Niles Silent Film Museum to commemorate the greatest silent films that influence modern day entertainment. Today we spoke with David Keene, who enlightened us on the personal experience with silent films.
David Keene, Film Historian: I’m a historian for the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum. I do a lot of different things at the museum. Film programing. Projectionist. Take care of a lot of the behind the scenes things at the museum.
Murtaza Naqvi, Ohlone Tri-City News: The Niles Film Museum today, however, isn’t identical to what it used to be due to several changes over the years. However, despite this, the Essanay Silent Film Museum has made huge efforts to contribute to bringing the past back to life.
David Keene, Film Historian: The beginning here in 2001, a bunch of us formed a nonprofit, The Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum and in 2004, we got access to this 1913 Nickelodeon movie theater, the Edison Theater, moved in. And in January of 2005, we started showing silent films with live music accompaniment. And every Saturday night. And we’ve been doing that pretty much ever since. As more films have been coming into the public domain, we’ve been showing films that we haven’t been able to show before because of the rental field fees that we’d have to charge. And we showed just last month, I believe, go west with Buster Keaton for the first time. And it was our first sellout crowd since before COVID. So he still brings people into the shows.
Murtaza Naqvi, Ohlone Tri-City News: The technology used by old directors such as Charlie Chaplin has left a huge imprint on the Silent Film Museum, which has allowed them to accumulate such a large amount of exotic equipment, along with around 10 to 12000 silent films over the years in various different ways.
David Keene, Film Historian: We have over 10,000 films in our collection here at the museum. Film prints not digital copies, but film prints that we show out of our original projection booth at the theater. Over the years, we’ve gathered lots and lots of films, and our first collection actually came from Ohlone college that was stored in a closet there for many years. And it was owned by a film collector named Robert Maskell. We also, as collectors in the Bay Area, older collectors started dying, their relatives gave those collections to us so we would get maybe two, three, four, 500 films at a time from various collections that became available. One of our mentors that really started out helping us at the beginning was David Sheppard, who is a world renowned film preservationist, and he had a collection of his own of about 3000 prints that he gave us, and he also arranged to get a rental collection of films that was owned by Murray Glass in Southern California of about 5000 films that came here to the museum. And then we just continued to collect collection after collection. In terms of the equipment that we have here at the museum, when we came into the auditorium in 2004, there was no equipment at all in the original projection booth, just the tin lined room itself. So we had to acquire the equipment to actually project films again. At the same time, we’ve also been collecting vintage film equipment over the years, a lot of it donated to us by Les Thomas, a former newsreel cameramen in the fifties and sixties. Dick Bartell, who was a projectionist starting in the 1930s, gave us a lot of stuff. People whose relatives owned the equipment, gave us a lot of equipment, and and we’ve tried to fix as much of it as we could up so that it would actually run again. We also got a lot of vintage silent film cameras in our collection. A lot of them donated to us, some of them rare and a few things that are unique, one of a kind.
Nicolas Bihler, Ohlone Tri-City News: Finally, Mr. Keen offered some final thoughts on silent films to future Museum-goers.
David Keene, Film Historian: I think people who haven’t seen silent films before may be surprised by by them. If they come to the theater and look at them on the screen. In the past, people have gotten the impression about what silent films look like and what their content is and and not a very good impression. Sometimes you see them speeded up and the quality looks pretty bad, you know, fuzzy, contrasty, maybe even out of focus. But silent film makers were really meticulous about making good quality films. And we have some really great prints of films, some taken from the original camera negative in our collection. And when you see a good quality print with live music on the screen, with a crowd, I think you can really get carried away and be impressed by a silent film.
Murtaza Naqvi, Ohlone Tri-City News: If you would like to learn more about the Niles Film Museum, visit NilesFilmMuseum.org. From the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum, this is Murtaza Naqvi with Ohlone Tri-City News.

This story about the Ohlone College Music Department was first broadcast during the Ohlone Tri-City News program on May 17, 2023.

Nicolas Bihler, Reporter

Script

Nicolas Bihler, Ohlone Tri-City News: The music department at Ohlone is very student oriented and offers a fun environment with numerous classes to explore and further one’s skills.
Josh, Pianist: There’s a lot of students here that they just come for fun. They’re here for you know, many years, and that’s okay. There’s a lot of other students here who have a different idea, want to come here, work hard for two years and then transfer. So I think it can be whatever experience you want it to be.
Russell, Singer/Studio Recorder: So you’ll figure out what your reason for doing music is, even if it’s so much as, Oh, that sounds cool. I want to do that and people will find their own reason.
Tim Roberts, Associate Professor: So it winds up being a music making thing as much as a music teaching situation. So it’s fun to create an environment that’s making music as a model for my students rather than just telling them what to do and making them memorize things. So that’s what makes it fun.
Nicolas Bihler, Ohlone Tri-City News: The music department recently received a huge overhaul of their facilities as part of an Ohlone grant.
Russell, Singer/Studio Recorder: I’ve seen it go from we were all learning art, doing our musicianship and our theory just in essentially a big office room to now we’re actually in a music facility, a music teaching facility.
Tim Roberts, Associate Professor: There’s a brand new recording studio for those who are more career oriented, who want to be an engineer or want to be a mixer or want to be a producer. That is really, really state of the art stuff in the brand new studio.
Madee, Vocal Major Student: The recital hall is a big thing for us to experience such, you know, nice music environment and also the practice rooms were a big deal for us as well. So it’s nice that the facilities are well equipped and also fairly new.
Russell, Singer/Studio Recorder: We’ve got a band room, we’ve got a recital hall, we’ve got practice rooms. Actually, we have a studio that we can record music. We’ve also got piano lab and a computer lab. So all these various things have contributed.
Tim Roberts, Associate Professor: Everybody needs a place to practice. Especially a soundproof place to practice. So there are a set of practice rooms that they all have a piano in there and then a chair, and it’s basically a prison cell, but that’s what it’s supposed to be.
Josh, Pianist: There’s some good music labs here with good computers and nice pianos. Sounds pretty cool, especially if you’re trying to do composition, that kind of thing. Aside from that, the recital hall is really nice, has a nice piano.
Tim Roberts, Associate Professor: All the rooms are interconnected. Via Dante Communications so they all run back to the recording studio. So the whole the whole department is kind of like a recording studio with different rooms.
Nicolas Bihler, Ohlone Tri-City News: And the professors in the program have been able to help students with their journey towards success.
Madee, Vocal Major Student: I think the fact that every one of them is really engaging and also willing to help really also engage me to my fullest potential and also we know that they’re equipped with, you know, learning and credentials and all that, and they just help us to build that step in time to be prepared once we transfer to another school.
Russell, Singer/Studio Recorder: So our head faculty member Tim Roberts has been an extreme force to push students, myself and my friends, to improve ourselves without being strict or harsh about it. He’s he’s always been of the opinion that if you want to learn, I’ll teach you, but I’m not going to force it down your throat. You can be here if you want.
Josh, Pianist: My private instructor, Professor Sandy Chan, she’s helped me a lot. She’s really good piano teacher, but she goes beyond that as well and supports her students. And some of the other teachers do as well do that here. But that’s just the one that’s the most for me.
Russell, Singer/Studio Recorder: Our vocal professor focuses a lot on how to embody what you want put out in yourself. So if you want a nice regal sound from your voice, he shows you how to get there and how you need to change your body to get there. And also how to deal with the mental obstacles along the way.
Yvette, Soprano 2: I would say the DLC would help me in a way that like would improve my voice in a way. It’s like very hard to explain, but like if you take his class, it’s like really? It really just helps improve overall.
Nicolas Bihler, Ohlone Tri-City News: The professors and facilities are not the only sources of help for students.
Joey, Choir Student: Other than the music sheets we do learn from. It’s also the the overall atmosphere and everyone else around it.
Yvette, Soprano 2: The resources I have are technically my friends that I made in choir. So usually there’s like this choir class. It’s like, very friendly and like, it’s very easy to like, you know, make yourself feel like you belong here because, like, everyone’s just really outgoing and really friendly.
Nicolas Bihler, Ohlone Tri-City News: Finally, some words of advice are offered for future students.
Josh, Pianist: The music department at Ohlone is kind of varied in terms of both students, professors, classes. I think the experience can really be what you make of it.
Russell, Singer/Studio Recorder: Embrace the suck. There are going to be moments where you’re not going to want to do it, and then you just got to remember why you got into music in the first place.
Madee, Vocal Major Student: Just believe in yourself. Yeah.
Tim Roberts, Associate Professor: Follow your heart. Feed your soul at this moment. Go and see if if you want music so bad that you can’t imagine doing something else, then that’s going to be here.
Joey, Choir Student: Come join us. It’s. It’s fun. You’ll find new friends.
Nicolas Bihler, Ohlone Tri-City News: If you are interested in what the music department has to offer, then head over to Ohlone.edu/music to see upcoming courses and how to sign up. From the Ohlone College Fremont Campus, This is Nicolas Bihler with Ohlone Tri-City News.

This story about the Ohlone College Playwrights Festival was first broadcast during the live Ohlone Tri-City News program on May 10, 2023.

Cavyn McDonald, Reporter
Gustavo Sotelo, Photographer

Reporter: Ohlone College’s Theatre department hosted its annual playwrights festival last week. The show features 10 plays and musicals written for students.
Lance Renteria: all the playwrights written by different people, and based it off each actor in the play. so we got interviewed and they took that interview and incorporated what they saw in us and they put it into a story so they could relate us to some of the characters in a way.
Michael Navarra Smith: And then they send those interviews to the playwrights and the playwrights have 5 weeks to write a play specifically for them. So the whole process is about getting plays that are specifically for the student here at ohlone.
Troung Le Dign: It’s run by students. we work together, we try to collaborate together. Its very fun because you’re around people your age
Michael Navarra Smith: The playwrights festival, the Ohlone playwrights festival is part of a class called student repertory theatre and what student repertory theatre is, is a class of all student actors, directors, designers, and stage managers. And so it’s all student-run, is the idea behind it.
Reporter: The festival gives students the opportunity to act in a role created for them.
Michael Navarra Smith: Usually, when you are doing a play, most plays are already written. oftentimes they’re already established, maybe they’ve been done in other places. And then there’s a whole body of work that we call new plays. And those are still written not for the actor, but it’s a new play a playwright wrote and now a company is going to produce it for the first time. We call that a world premiere. we’re doing that but we’re taking it a step further in that we are having the playwrights write specifically for those actors.
Reporter: Students in the repertory theatre class spend time and work to get to performance day. Along the way, they make friends and new memories.
Lance: I had to learn how to heely, and I was riding them during our dress rehearsal and I slipped a little bit. Everyone was saying it’s okay and you did great. everyone was super positive about it, not to worry.
Troung: Getting together with the gang, usually after class and going out to eat. get to know them better as a person.it’s cool.
Reporter: Experiences like the playwrights festival help students grow as more than just actors.
Micheal: So we have 10 different plays. one of them is a musical, and each one has its own unique storyline, theme to it. And a lot of it has to do with what the students are already getting the opportunity to work on. whether it’s acting or the technical side, or they’re directing, and so on. And so for me, it’s really just getting to see each one of the students have a moment for themselves that they really shine in, so any time I see that, thats what inspires me.
Troung:I hope that parents are proud of their children who where performing in font of us.some of them have have fright stage, or stage fright and they conquered that, which is pretty powerful.
Lance: I suggest taking the class, honestly its a really fun class, its offered only in the spring.
Reporter: For more information on theatre events and classes, you can visit www.ohlone.edu/theatreanddance This has been Cavyn McDonald with Ohlone tri-city news.

This story about the Fremont Cultural Arts Council was first broadcast during the live Ohlone Tri-City News program on May 10, 2023.

Vivian Hong, Reporter
Xavier Casipe, Photographer

This story about the Fremont Cultural Arts Council was first broadcast during the live Ohlone Tri-City News program on May 10, 2023.

Anna Garcia, Reporter
Vincent Torres, Photographer

Script

ANCHOR: A non-profit organization focuses on furthering the practice and enjoyment of fine arts in Fremont. Here’s Anna with the story.
REPORTER: The Fremont Cultural Arts Council was formed by historical efforts to help advocate for cultural arts in the surrounding community.
Al Minard, Regional Arts and History: FCAC promotes the arts and the culture of Fremont and environments, but mostly here in Fremont.
Julie Gilson, President of FCAC: With support from city of Fremont founding fathers, and they were founding fathers at that time, along with very supportive spouses. They formed this nonprofit organization to promote the arts in Fremont and to raise funds and lobby for a performing arts center in Fremont.
REPORTER: The organization is run by inspired and passionate volunteers who want to support and serve as a collective voice in matters of public policy affecting cultural arts and give back to the community.
Al Minard, Regional Arts and History: We don’t have an event center. We don’t. Most of the time, we don’t sponsor enough of the cultural and art activities that are going on in Fremont at the city level. And so any kind of promotion you can to promote this is a good thing.
Arathi Satish, Publicity and PR: I used to be a regular writer for our local newspaper, Tri-City Voice, and I used to review many art exhibits in various places like Olive Hyde Art Gallery and Fremont Cultural Art Council events. And over a period of time, I realized it was time to give back to the community and FCAC provided me with a great platform to do that.
Connie Chew, Vice President of FCAC: Fremont Cultural Arts Council felt like a good place for me, a good home for me to join and just be involved in other aspects like today’s writing contest and other things like photo contests that we have also once a year and just be involved in in the city and the Tri-City.
REPORTER: The FCAC promotes community-building cultural art activities that helps local artists showcase their skills and work.
Arathi Satish, Publicity and PR: Flash Fiction is a very interesting event because it gives local writers an opportunity to write. And also, it helps them to have their work published in the local newspaper.
Al Minard, Regional Arts and History: I run it. I get to choose what the theme is every year and I get to read all the stories. And so, then I have a lot of fun reading the stories.
Connie Chew, Vice President of FCAC: I also love the photo contest that we have and our photos right now or recently, we had a contest and it’s being exhibited at the Fremont Library.
REPORTER: The Fremont Cultural Arts Council produces its own events and offers sponsorship and assistance to other local art organizations.
Arathi Satish, Publicity and PR: We conduct various events. For example, we conduct arts and crafts in Shinn Park where local artists can come and display their artwork, they can sell their artwork.
Julie Gilson, President of FCAC: We work to cross-promote. We try to work as a networking linking organization to link up artists who might have mutual reason to collaborate.
Connie Chew, Vice President of FCAC: We help a lot of other Fremont art organizations as well, and like the gallery, we get involved. We have interns now, but for a few years, and they also help different art organizations in the area where they go out and help on their events, but they help on our events.
Arathi Satish, Publicity and PR: And we have events like Las Posadas, which is held in front of the Mission San Jose Church, where all the communities come together to celebrate the nine days of journey that Mary and Joseph took.
REPORTER: The FCAC encourages community and civic efforts to help create performing art facilities and public art installations.
Al Minard, Regional Arts and History: We have no event center. We have no dedicated large area for art program other than Olive Hyde, which is a tiny place, only about half the size of Half Price Books. And so, we are being strangled by our city and not having enough venues for the arts and culture in Fremont.
Arathi Satish, Publicity and PR: I would definitely like more people to participate and take part in the events so that, you know, it is an opportunity for them to display their artwork or their writing skills just to take part in different community events.
REPORTER: The all-volunteer organization helps promote the public image of Fremont as a balanced community as it strives to provide benefits and opportunities for arts and culture in the community.
Al Minard, Regional Arts and History: It’s a wonderful organization. A great opportunity to volunteer for a lot of cultural and artistic events.
Julie Gilson, President of FCAC: We’re always looking for volunteers. In fact, we’re registered through Handshake with Ohlone College as an employer for internships, and we would be very, very glad to partner with an online college student.
Arathi Satish, Publicity and PR: I hope more people volunteer, more people come and sit on our board and, you know, take part in the community events and also give back to our community.
REPORTER: To become a volunteer or learn more about the Fremont Cultural Arts Council, visit their website by going to Fremont Cultural Arts Council dot org. This is Anna Garcia for Ohlone Tri-City News.

This story about the Fremont Local History Museum was first broadcast during the live Ohlone Tri-City News program on May 3, 2023.

Cavyn McDonald, Reporter
Gustavo Sotelo, Photographer

REPORTER (V/O): Located by the hills of mission peak, The Washington Township local history museum shares the history of the cities of Fremont, union city, and Newark.
BARBRA BAXTER: It’s a combined collection. There were two local historical societies, the Washington township historical society, and the mission peak heritage foundation, and they came together to pool their resources to build, collect, and hold the stuff in this museum. MARJORY BEGLEY: They needed someplace to put all this. And at one time in 1909, it was known as Washington Township, and it was union city, newark, and the five little towns.
REPORTER (V/O): The museum Hosts various exhibits centered on history in both the local area and California at large.
BARBRA BAXTER: We have the (?) collection of photographs that local doctors managed to get in the 1960s and 70s. before there were scanners he would take pictures of some of the early family’s photographs
MARJORY BEGLEY: I think one of my favorites is the gold rush. Also, the ariel of the of Niles and it shows all the different.. because when we started out the was so agriculture, we grew a lot of things here and it became more citified and things changed
REPORTER (V/O): Workers and volunteers share knowledge on the exhibits in the museum, and the stories behind pieces in them.
BARBRA BAXTER: I kind of like the ostrich egg over in the display cabinet because it’s a really cute story about boys in the 1890s who were fascinated with, they collected things. And so they collected bird eggs, and most of the bird eggs in that exhibit are local birds that you find out in the fields, but there’s an ostrich egg in there. The story is that there was an ostrich farm near Fresno and they were trying to raise ostriches commercially so the little boy had the egg collection here and traded an egg for the ostrich egg in Fresno. he hoped he could hatch it but of course he didn’t.
REPORTER (V/O): The museum’s staff share their thoughts on why the museum and local history are so important.
BARBRA BAXTER: I think all history is important. We need to know where we’ve come from, and what made things happen the way they happened so we can know where we’re going. I think it’s a good idea to have a lot of info on the people who came before us. history in the past was written by the people who were the most important people and were trying to be a little more expansive in doing some of the histories of the people who didn’t get there stories told in the first place. MARJORY BEGLEY: I want people to know how we developed where we came from children need to know how the city started and it’s important to know those things. It gives you a basic background of how we started and where were heading to.
MARJORY BEGLEY: Were a fun organization, and were small and were not like a big museum but were a museum that, it kind of old fashioned museum.
REPORTER (V/O) For more information on the museum and how to volunteer, you can visit museumoflocalhistory.org

This story about Ohlone College Extended Opportunity Programs & Services (EOPS) was first broadcast during the live Ohlone Tri-City News program on May 3, 2023.

Vincent Torres, Reporter
Anna Garcia, Photographer

ANCHOR: A program at Ohlone College is designed to meet the educational needs of students hindered by social, economic, and language barriers. Here is Vincent with the story.
REPORTER (V/O): Extended Opportunity Programs and Services, better known as EOPS, is a program that offers various resources to help aid the needs of students and carry them to the end of their educational goal.
Nancy Navarro-Leça, EOPS and Special Programs Director:
The program came to be by a lot of heavy advocacy. A lot of advocacy of a lot of good people who recognized that at the time, during the sixties, there was a lot of educational injustice, and they wanted educational justice and opportunities for everyone.
Danna Beltran, Psychology Major: I joined this program because I knew that it was a community where they would help give me the support and help that I would need in my academic career.
Nancy Navarro-Leça, EOPS and Special Programs Director: So, what makes me really proud about the EOPS program that is really a grass roots movement started with the community, with the people that felt that they weren’t being represented and wronged, and it became a whole movement in which we have EOPS born right out of this.
REPORTER (V/O): Students who are eligible to enroll in the program have access to services including early registration, academic advising, and financial assistance.
Nancy Navarro-Leça, EOPS and Special Programs Director: One of the biggest benefits is really building community. If you think about it, anywhere you go, you don’t feel like you really thrive in the space unless you feel like you belong in the space.
Nancy Chieng, EOPS Counselor: We help students with whatever they need. It doesn’t just have to be questions about like academics or classes. We help them with questions about their career, their major, jobs, financial aid, scholarships, personal questions.
Vanesa Morales, EOPS & Special Programs Coordinator: A lot of the benefits that students get from being part of the program, not only do they get to do fun workshops and events and field trips, but they also get priority registration and they also get to receive book grants and just academic and financial support through our program if theyČ re eligible for it.
REPORTER (V/O): Counselors in the EOPS Program assist students with the development of education plans, financial aid, and course registration.
Nancy Chieng, EOPS Counselor: I like to kind of use like what I call narrative counseling, so just having students share their story with me.
Whatever it is, every student has a story to share. So, I like to listen to the student first about what they have to bring to the table and what their goals are, and then go from there.
Vanesa Morales, EOPS & Special Programs Coordinator: We help them prepare for essentially their next step in life, which can be transferring to a four-year university. Or it could be their dream job or career.
Nevaeh Heard, Undeclared Major: This program can benefit me in the future by helping me understand how to transition into other schools and feel more comfortable in academic spaces outside of just Ohlone so that when I do transfer, I feel comfortable and a program such as EOPS
Vanesa Morales, EOPS & Special Programs Coordinator: So, we just help them develop the skill sets that they need to transfer, making sure that they complete their required classes, making sure that they’re getting the certificates that they want, making sure that they have a plan, educational plan in place that’s going to lead them to their dream job.
REPORTER (V/O): EOPS coordinates many community-building activities, workshops, and field trips for students to enjoy and build connections.
Vanesa Morales, EOPS & Special Programs Coordinator: For example, this spring semester we did a career development series where we help students create a resume, help them look for jobs on campus and off campus, develop their career skills.
Danna Beltran, Psychology Major: My favorite events are the ones they do for like community building because you get to meet other students who are like in the same position that you are, and you get to hear their stories and how you are different and how you’re similar.
Vanesa Morales, EOPS & Special Programs Coordinator: We also do fun activities like we had a spring social where students get to really hang out with each other, build community, feel like they’re part of the campus. And we recently also had a field trip to San Jose State University, which was really, really fun. So, we just try to keep students engaged.
REPORTER (V/O): Graduation-ready students are invited to an end-of-the-year award ceremony where they can celebrate the hardships they overcame and welcome the next stage of their life.
Nancy Navarro-Leça, EOPS & Special Programs Director: It’s really the culmination of everything that we do when a student makes it to an award ceremony, itČ s visualizing your dreams. You finally made it to the end goal.
Nancy Chieng, EOPS Counselor: There was one student who came back to Ohlone. Maybe around 2019, and she had previously come to Ohlone, but she left because there was a lot going on in her life. She’s a single mom and she came back to Ohlone feeling just broken and just lost and confused. And I met with her, and we came up with a plan for her to pursue her major in communications. And she’s thriving now. I mean, I think she’s just kind of turned a new leaf. And with taking advantage of resources like EOPS, she was able to pursue her goals and transferred to San Jose State. And she’s graduating this semester from San Jose State and getting her bachelor’s degree.
REPORTER (V/O): For students who need advising and guidance through their journey at Ohlone, the EOPS Program provides an engaging
and collaborative community and experience.
Nancy Navarro-Leça, EOPS & Special Programs Director: It’s a program that changed my own life. It transformed my own life. And this is the part that really strikes a chord with me because I was a product of this very program.
Nevaeh Heard, Undeclared Major: It’s a great program. You guys should be a part of it. We have so many benefits and it is important that spaces like this on campus are utilized.
Nancy Navarro-Leça, EOPS & Special Programs Director: Everyone that works in this department, I know that they truly, truly, truly care about every single student and they really want to always make sure that they do whatever is in students’ interest.
REPORTER (V/O): To apply and learn more about the EOPS Program, visit Ohlone dot edu slash EOPS or visit their office at the Fremont Campus on the second floor of Building 7. This is Vincent Torres for Ohlone Tri-City News.